President Ghulam Ishaq Khan

A powerful player in the political equation was President Ishaq Khan.
The president, under the constitution, is elected by a majority of the
members of the national and provincial assemblies. Ishaq Khan was a
seasoned senior bureaucrat-turned politician who had been a key figure
in Pakistan for more than three decades. Born in 1915 in the North-West
Frontier Province, he was appointed to the prestigious Civil Service of
Pakistan after independence in 1947. After holding various regional
posts, including being chairman of the West Pakistan Water and Power
Development Authority (1961-66), he was appointed to several positions
in the central government--first as secretary, Ministry of Finance
(1966-70) and later as governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (1971-75).
In the latter position, he questioned the wisdom of a number of the
economic policies of then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was
subsequently moved from the bank and made secretary general at the
Ministry of Defence. Although an unusual post for a senior economics
expert, it proved to be fortuitous in that it brought him into close
contact with the senior officers of the armed forces. Among them was
General Zia, who later ousted Bhutto and turned the management of the
economy over to Ishaq Khan. During the martial law period (1977- 85),
Ishaq Khan's titles changed, but he was responsible for all important
economic decisions. Among other
things, he supported the Zia government's efforts to Islamize the
economy by changes in the fiscal and banking systems.

In 1985 Ishaq Khan was elected to the Senate and later became
chairman of the Senate. The death of Zia in 1988 thrust Ishaq Khan to
the center of the political stage. When the military decided to use the
constitution to handle the issue of succession, Ishaq Khan, as chairman
of the Senate and therefore next in the line of succession, became
acting president. He and the emergency council he instituted decided to
hold general elections and to allow political parties to participate.
Thus, the country was guided back to democracy, Benazir became prime
minister, and Ishaq Khan was subsequently elected president by the
national and provincial assemblies.

Ishaq Khan's position was considerably strengthened by the Eighth
Amendment to the constitution, introduced by President Zia, which allows
the president to dismiss the government and to override the government's
choice of army chief. When the previous army chief died unexpectedly,
President Ishaq Khan reportedly turned down the government's choice and
named General Abdul Waheed to head the army. General Waheed, who is not
known to have any political ambitions, is from the same ethnic group as
Ishaq Khan--the Pakhtuns of the North-West Frontier Province.

Intermittent and conflicting signals of rapprochement, realignment,
and behind-the-scenes alliances among the various political players
heightened the political tension in late 1992 and early 1993. There was
speculation that the opposition and the government might join forces to
muster a two-thirds majority in the parliament to repeal the Eighth
Amendment or even that they might field a candidate against the
president. However, it was also noticeable that Benazir had stopped
openly attacking the president, and some observers considered that she
might be playing for time, hoping to use the differences between the
president and the prime minister to her own advantage. The army,
however, always a key ingredient in the mix, continued to support the
president as well as the continuation of the Eighth Amendment. Against
this backdrop, Pakistan's developing democracy continued to be tested by
economic problems, persistent violence, and corruption, as well as the
power struggles of its leaders.